At the beginning of my 8:00 a.m. class one Monday at University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), I cheerfully asked my students how their weekend had been. One young man said that his weekend had not been very good. He’d had his wisdom teeth extracted. The young man then proceeded to ask me why I always seemed to be so cheerful. His question reminded me of something I’d read somewhere before: ”Every morning when you get up, you have a choice about how you want to approach life that day”, I said to the young man. ”I choose to be cheerful. Let me give you an example”, I continued.
The other 60 students in the class ceased their chatter and began to listen to our conversation. As soon as I got there, I called AAA and asked them to send a tow truck. The secretary in the Provost’s office asked me what had happened. ”This is my lucky day,” I replied, smiling. ”Your car breaks down and today is your lucky day?” She was puzzled. ”What do you mean?”
”I live 17 miles from here,” I replied. ”My car could have broken down anywhere along the freeway. It didn’t. Instead, it broke down in the perfect place: off the freeway, within walking distance of here. I’m still able to teach my class, and I’ve been able to arrange for the tow truck to meet me after class. If my car was meant to break down today, it couldn’t have been arranged in a more convenient fashion.” The secretary’s eyes opened wide, and then she smiled. I smiled back and headed for class.’ So ended my story to the students in my economics class at UNLV.
I scanned the 60 faces in the lecture hall. Despite the early hour, no one seemed to be asleep. Somehow, my story had touched them. Or maybe it wasn’t the story at all. In fact, it had all started with a student’s observation that I was cheerful.
A wise man once said: ”Who you are speaks louder to me than anything you can say.” I suppose it must be so.
Lee Ryan Miller – ”Teaching Amidst the Neon Palm Trees”